National Hotel disease

The National Hotel in Washington, DC, the site of the mysterious disease.

The National Hotel epidemic was a mysterious sickness that began to afflict persons who stayed at the National Hotel in Washington, DC, in early January 1857.[1] At the time, the hotel was the largest in the city.[2] By some accounts, as many as 400 people became sick, and nearly three dozen died.[3]

Although there was speculation of an attempt to poison hotel guests, that theory was not proven.[4] The outbreak affected mostly patrons of the hotel's dining room but not those who frequented the bar.[5] It began to spread more noticeably by mid-January 1857.[1] New cases of the illness began to decrease in number by the end of January 1857 and continued to abate until mid-February. When the numbers of guests increased for the presidential inauguration of March 4, 1857, the sickness returned again forcefully.[1]

In the 21st century, medical experts attribute the outbreak to "dysentery because of the hotel’s primitive sewage system."[6]

  1. ^ a b c "The Washington Epidemic", New York Daily Times, March 23, 1857, pg. 2.
  2. ^ Redman, Brian Francis (2009). "What Would Millard Do?", Findings of the Friends of Millard Fillmore, pg. 53.
  3. ^ "The Mysterious National Hotel Disease". Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  4. ^ "The Washington Epidemic--Report of the Committee of the Board of Health". The New York Times. 25 March 1857. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference disease was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "The Mysterious National Hotel Disease". History, Art & Archives. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved 9 January 2021.